SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets, courthouses and BART stations across the Bay Area on Friday, signaling the start of Black Lives Matter protests leading up to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.

In San Francisco, commuters were recovering their hearing by midmorning after BART reopened three stations closed by spoon-clanging protesters.

About 250 protesters first gathered at 7 a.m. at the BART Montgomery station in San Francisco, banging metal spoons on train cars and poles, and later moved to the Embarcadero and Powell Street stations.

It was one of four protests across the Bay Area on Friday, including one at the Oakland federal building that drew 150 people, with some chaining themselves outside the front entrance.

No one was arrested in Oakland, but in San Francisco two were in custody after the BART protest for interfering with rail transit, according to BART police Lt. Aaron Ledford — one male for kicking a train window and a female for blocking a train car door. No injuries were reported.

When that protest began, BART officials announced that trains would not be stopping at the Montgomery station and later closed the Embarcadero and Powell Street stations when protesters showed up there as well. About 9:30 a.m., the stations reopened.

San Jose resident George Cammarota, 63, arrived at the Montgomery station at 6:30 a.m. “To stand up to police violence. To let people know black lives matter.” He held a sign reading just that.

Near him, 59-year-old James Pounders of San Francisco held his own sign, opposing the protest: “There are consequences when you break the law. Respect the law.”

BART spokesman Jim Allison said the transit agency’s ridership on Friday was down 24,000 from the previous Friday. BART serves some 400,000 riders a day in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and surrounding suburbs.

Specifically, BART protesters want charges dismissed against 14 people who blocked train doors at the West Oakland station on Black Friday in November, shutting down Transbay service for three hours.

At the California Supreme Court in San Francisco on Friday, another protest action involved a “lawyer die-in for racial justice.”

Across the bay in Oakland, members and supporters of the Third World Resistance group protested at the federal building, with more than 30 using PVC tubing, chains and U-locks to block the two main entrances. The peaceful protest drew at least 150 people and began before 7 a.m. at the main entrance to the Ronald V. Dellums Building and another entrance on Jefferson Street. Employees and people with business at the main building were able to get in at an alternate entrance.

Another protest at noon involved about 50 people gathered at the Alameda County courthouse, some using noisemakers and musical instruments to stop scheduled foreclosure auctions. No one was arrested.

The protests in the Bay Area came after grand juries in Missouri and New York declined to indict police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men. Protesters and their supporters criticized BART officials after it was reported that they could be asked to pay up to $5,000 each in restitution for the November transit shutdown.

Demonstrations announced on social media set for this weekend include a 3 p.m. march Saturday at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, a march Sunday at 7 p.m. that starts at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland and an 11 a.m. march on Monday that starts at the Fruitvale BART station.

Harry Harris and Malaika Fraley contributed to this report. Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund.

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